LONDON: It has been accused of crushing national identity, pushing up prices and being the best friend of fraudsters and drug barons. But now the euro - Europe’s new single currency - faces its toughest criticism: it can make you ill.

After years of anticipation, the coins and notes will be launched in 12 countries on Tuesday. But millions of people who eagerly grab their new coins could see their hands turn into a scaly, diseased mass after minutes. The British Journal of Dermatology warns the coins could cause eczema among 45 million people. Austrian doctors have branded them a ‘very dirty currency’. City traders have called the euro, which has fallen sharply in value, a ‘toilet currency’ because it has gone down the pan.

Bank tellers and shop assistants have been advised to wear gloves for work, or to get a new job. The =db1and =db2 coins contain high levels of nickel. European bureaucrats agreed to include the metal despite warnings that allergy to nickel affects up to one in seven people, particularly women. Medical researchers have conducted tests showing the coins can make far more people sick than currencies they replace.

But a spokesman for the European Commission said: “Nickel is used extensively in a number of national currencies already - there is no scientific evidence there will be any medical effects.”—Dawn/The Observer News Service.